One of the best things about Christmas is that it makes me think about another holiday – Good Friday. Jesus came to earth for many reasons, but make no mistake about it, arguably the most important reason for His incarnation was His crucifixion.
Consider these words from the lips of Christ:
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
A ransom is the price one person pays to set another person free from slavery. How did Jesus do that? When he died on the cross, he paid the price to liberate guilty sinners like me and you from the vice-like grip of sin and all its devastating consequences in both this life and the next.
The primary purpose of the birth of Christ was the death of Christ. With or without a pandemic, it’s easy to lose sight of that. Jesus was born to die, so that we might be born again to live.
Amen?
With that unspeakably joyful thought in mind, please take time this Advent season to meditate on the incomparably glorious purpose of the Christmas story.
I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Christmas than to fill our minds with the plethora of spiritual blessings accomplished by Jesus on the cross. John Piper’s Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die was written with that endeavor in mind, and it is available for no charge in PDF, Kindle (mobi) and ePub formats here:
https://www.desiringgod.org/books/fifty-reasons-why-jesus-came-to-die
You can also purchase a paperback copy via the above link (or Amazon). This would make a wonderful Christmas present for any Christ-follower in your life.
Why did Jesus come to earth to die?
— to absorb the wrath of God
— to show the wealth of God’s love and grace for sinners
— for the forgiveness of our sins
— to take away our condemnation
— to make us holy, blameless and perfect
— to give us a clear conscience
— to obtain for us all things that are good for us
— to please His heavenly Father
— to become for us the place where we meet God
— to deliver us from the present evil age
Those are ten of the chapters you’ll find in Piper’s book. And there’s forty more to set your heart on fire with praise and thanksgiving to the God who loves us so much, He gave us the best Christmas present ever – His Son and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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